The Chronicle
A NUMBER of airlines have indicated that they will soon resume direct flights to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe’s prime tourist destination. The airlines suspended flights to Zimbabwe as part of measures to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Recently the British Airways (Comair) and South Africa’s Airlink confirmed that they are resuming flights to Victoria Falls soon. Comair announced that it is resuming daily return flights between Johannesburg and Victoria Fall next Thursday.
SA Airlink has not given a date but it has indicated that flights between Cape Town and Victoria Falls will resume soon.
Africa’s largest airline group, Ethiopian Airlines, local low-cost airline Fastjet and Mack Air of Botswana have since resumed direct flights to Victoria Falls.
The return of the airlines is a confirmation of confidence in destination Victoria Falls and Zimbabwe. The tourism industry was the worst-hit globally following the outbreak of Covid-19 as countries were forced to enforce travel restrictions to curb the spread of the pandemic.
Most airlines suspended flights and as such the tourism industry in countries like Zimbabwe which depended mostly on foreign tourists were seriously affected. Most hotels and lodges, in fact, closed because there was no business as a result of international and local travel restrictions.
Many countries have since relaxed travel restrictions hence many airlines are resuming flights. What is encouraging is that Zimbabwe is already enjoying increasing international tourist arrivals and a return of many international airlines.
Players in the tourism and hospitality industry should therefore, brace for a boom in tourism but should continue to promote domestic tourism despite the return of international tourists.
In a bid to boost domestic tourism, many operators were last year offering discounted accommodation rates and fees for other tourism activities for locals.
The industry had to turn to domestic tourism for quick…